Mercy

While Moses was alone with God, receiving the Law, the Israelites turned to revelry and idolatry. When he saw their sin, Moses angrily broke the tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written (Exodus 32:19). He chastised Aaron for poor leadership and disciplined the people. But he also defended them. This experience seems to have intensified Moses’ desire to draw closer to God. He promised…

Unchanging Truth

When asked about his career, a famous athlete recently confessed, “You start off playing honest, but you learn in life that if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.” Many people have this attitude. We look around and see people who appear to have gained wealth and power by cheating and lying. They don’t hesitate to deceive others or act without moral constraints. They excuse themselves and…

A Servant’s Prayer

Why are some prayers so powerful? So effective? We learn several important insights from the prayer of Abraham’s servant. The servant had traveled hundreds of miles on a mission to find a wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac. As he arrived in the city of Nahor, he paused to pray, knowing he needed a miracle. Here, in this faraway land, was it even possible to find the right woman? And would she be…

A Message for Our Generation

Isaiah received visions “during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.” Jeremiah heard from God at specific times, including “in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.” Most other prophets also identified where they were born and lived, who was king, and the circumstances surrounding the messages God spoke through them. But Joel’s…

Doing Justice, Seeking Truth

God gave Jeremiah a challenge: Find just one man “who does justice, who seeks truth.” If even one man could be found, the Lord would pardon the nation. But God warned that this search would be futile. If Jeremiah traveled everywhere and talked with everyone, he would not find even one person who truly did justice and sought Truth. It was a nation filled with people devoted to compromise. Instead…

New

What would you do if you had the opportunity to start again? What mistakes would you like to correct? What opportunities would you like to face anew? What decisions would you like to reverse? We ponder questions like these at the end of a year as we look back at the past, thinking about what we’ve said, done, or failed to do. We can be filled with questions and uncertainty, or guilt, worry, and…

New Beginnings

As mere men and women, we are trapped in time, living largely in the moment, and speculating on what might happen tomorrow or in the new year. Often our minds cannot escape memories of the past. Our mistakes haunt us. We can be plagued by opportunities lost, people whom we’ve hurt, words we’ve said, or things we’ve done. Sometimes we re-live these painful moments, feeling we never can escape…

Hope for Friends & Family

In an email to Inspiration Ministries, a woman wrote that as she looked back at her life, she realized she hadn’t been walking with the Lord. Yet her grandmother had introduced the woman to Jesus when she was just a young child, and she “Sowed many Seeds of faith.” Watching a recent broadcast of CAMPMEETING, this woman rededicated her life to Jesus. CAMPMEETING sparked a New Beginning in her…

Great and Marvelous Are Thy Works

A “minister of blessing.” This is how John Quincy Adams described his mother, Abigail, in a letter to his father, John, on November 20, 1820, the day after she died. He affectionately remembered her firm mind, gentle temper, and “kindness and beneficence.” He recalled, “Never have I known another human being, the perpetual object of whose life was so unremittingly to do good.” Abigail’s…

Atonement

Everyone needed atonement, without exception-rich and poor, old and young, men and women. As God commanded, each person needed to have their sins forgiven in order to become right with Him. Atonement was linked with the giving of an offering. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, Aaron was to make atonement "with the blood of the sin offering" (v. 30). This was "most holy to the LORD." God also…